Dr. Mehdi Hassan

The holder of MA in journalism and PhD in mass communication from Punjab University, Dr. Mehdi Hassan is a left wing journalist and media historian. He is also a Fulbright Scholar (1990) at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he conducted research on Coverage of Third World Countries in the American Mass Media.

Dr. Mehdi Hassan is professor of the Journalism and the Mass communication at the Beaconhouse National University. He is the current vice-chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, Punjab Branch, and the Dean of School of Media and Communication at Beaconhouse National University. He is one of Pakistan’s most prominent communication experts with a specialization in political analysis.

One of few media historians of Pakistan, Dr. Mehdi is a regular commentator and panellist for news channels and radio stations where he brings his academic research into social context. His book The Political History of Pakistan is a widely used source of reference by journalists and producers.

A long-time human rights activist and member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Governing Council, Dr. Mehdi Hassan has written many papers in Pakistan as well as in US and participated in multiple seminars.

As a journalist, he was sub-editor, reporter and news bureau chief at Pakistan Press International (PPI) between 1961 and 1967. He was elected office-bearer of Pakistan Federation of Union of Journalists (PFUJ) five times during this period.

Apart from columnist at English daily The News International and Urdu daily Waqt, Dr. Mehdi has also been a news commentator and analyst for television since 1964 and for radio since 1962, including for Voice of America, BBC, Radio Germany, Reuters and APA, and a contributor for all major newspapers in Pakistan.